Please be advised that we are currently having problems with some of our users not being able to log into the site. We apologize for this, we are working to address the situation. Thank you for your patience

A small group of local cachers are planning a geocaching event called Island Spirit 2012 which will be held on the weekend of July 7th 2012. We have secured the entire Cowichan Fairgrounds for the weekend of the event because it will be large, very large... in fact it will be a mega event, quite possibly the biggest in Western Canada! Our goal will be to top the Best of the Bad... and they're rooting for us!

We have a wonderful geocaching community on the island that is social, involved and enthusiastic. We live in a beautiful region, rich in culture and history and we'd like to share that with our geocaching friends from the island, the rest of BC, Washington State, the prairies and places further afield.

There are a lot of great people in our communities, who like to get involved in one way or another. Our leadership team would love to hear from you if you may be interested in helping out at some point. We're going to need help in the fields of activity planning and management, sponsorship and corporate relations, marketing, and creative writing. We will need volunteers for the event itself, and a host of other things. We invite you to let us know if you'd like to be involved in some way. If so, please let us know what your particular interests are and if you can offer expertise or an experienced hand in any particular area. We are also interested in hearing about any ideas you may have about what you think would make a great event.

The Island Spirit leadership team consists of Chris and Helen Edley (Landsharkz), Mark and Robyn Byrne (Gecko Cacher and RV Traveller), and Tom and Heather Furlotte (Coast to coast to coast, and Toby and Me). You may contact any of this group with an expression of interest if you'd like to be involved.

There will be a lot going on in 2012, including the 100th anniversary of Duncan, BC. The theme of the event will be to present a rich Island experience which highlights the history and culture of southern Vancouver Island, and in particular the Cowichan Valley.

The Best of the Bad have promotional banners that are an easy "copy & paste" to put on our caching pages.
I have put them on all our old and newly published caches.
I think that would be a great idea for the Island Spirit.
As soon as the Bad is done, I would love to replace it with the Spirit promo's.
A

Any way we can get on this before the Bad event?
It would be an idea to take a bunch with us and put them into the AB caches.
We personally will be spending 3 days in AB caching.
I know there are a lot of people driving to AB.
Would be good to place cards in caches along the way to the event!
What do the chiefs in charge have to say?

Cards to put in caches (like the Best of the Bad created) would be very useful - I know we went through 500 here I think, from putting them in orders to dropping them in caches and spreading them around at events. I'll put that on Chris' to do list .

Cards to put in caches (like the Best of the Bad created) would be very useful - I know we went through 500 here I think, from putting them in orders to dropping them in caches and spreading them around at events. I'll put that on Chris' to do list .

A banner will also be forthcoming...

Keep the great suggestions coming!

Let me know when the cards are ready.
I will drive up and get a bunch and then give stacks to cachers, if so interested.

***Create some nice posters and send them to retail geocaching related stores to put up in their shops to promo the event.

^^^Create an email/mailing list/newsletter to keep people up to date as to the progress and to promote and to remind people of the event, stay in their thoughts.

***Create a monthly draw to "win something/anything free, whatever that might be" when promoting the event to create mailing/email list, to do the ^^^above. Promote this on all your advertising, FB, posters, promo cards, this website, other websites, anything related to caching, all your business and personal emails, etc.

***Create a nice blurb and email link that promotes the event, short and sweet. Then ask all your geocacher friends, associates, FB friends, suppliers, etc. to post that on their walls. People love to help out, give them something easy to help with.

In regards to the promo cards.
Get stacks out to key people in different parts of the province, country, etc. to distribute to other cachers so that they can spread them around.

***Or create a template of all the information ready to go and send that out to cachers who you can't get access to the promo stacks. This way they can print them out themselves and place them in caches. This way you don't control the quality of the paper or the printer, but the template of information comes from you which will be correct. Keep it easy and simple.

We will have one or two people working on Social Media and Marketing, but we're not going to go full steam until after we get back from Best of the Bad.

Promo cards are something we could have ready soon. I'm not sure about the downloadable template for the reasons you've mentioned, but sanctioned banners and blurbs which people can use on their cache listings, FB pages and emails would be part of the social media marketing plan.

I could see value in having some promo at Best of the Bad to let people know that a trip farther west should be in the forefront of their minds for 2012.

Yup, I understand that you will not go full steam until after the Bad.

Yes, promo cards are a must. This is the perfect time to get the cards out. Summer is the time when most people around here are caching.
Summer is the time when most people around here are traveling.
With the Bad coming up, a lot of BC folk are moving, this is the time to get them out.

You need a hand, let me know. Would love to do it.

Another idea is to visit all the Geocaching Associations across Canada and America and start up "New Topics" like you did here.
If you create a promo blurb of what you would like to have posted,
I would have no problem making this happen.
I have most of the association bookmarked already.

The core leadership group (Tom, Heather, Robyn, Mark, Chris and I) have some effective yet low-key ways to begin promoting Island Spirit 2012 at Best of the Bad. Like Best of the Bad, our major marketing blitz needs to be defined, planned and choreographed to be most effective, and to this end, the group has decided that we’re going to wait until our initial meeting with the island cachers to lay the groundwork for this.

Some people are already talking about Island Spirit 2012 and mistakenly thought it was this year (next week!). As with GeoWoodstock, and any large event, the following year’s doesn’t hit the ground running until the current year’s event has passed and we feel this is a good precedent to follow.

The promo cards, along with banners and all other promotion will include event logos and taglines and for this reason need to be carefully thought out and designed to be in keeping with the entire Island Spirit promo package (think COWWS or Best of the BAD). There needs to be a common visual look and feel to the entire event, from the initial promo cards to the Welcome banner at the event. It’s all about branding!

Have a great Canada Day weekend and hold those thoughts until August :).

To sum it all up:
You are a small group of people in charge. (I get that)
This groups need to get together and plan (I get that)
This group is not ready yet (I get that)
This group wants to wait and have a plan for release (I get that)

I HAVE NO DESIRE TO SHAKE THE FOUNDATION

Promotion is a passion of mine, it is something THAT I LOVE TO DO!

I have no desire to step on toes or take over the project or put my 3 loonies in to stir the pot.

I gracefully will take 4 steps back, bow my head in defeat and wait until the group is ready and play then!

Keep an eye on your inbox and once we have a meeting date set you're welcome to come along and participate as part of the group. There will be lots to do and as you've probably gathered we're going to be running this event like a well-oiled machine. One main benefit to planning as a group/team is that we'll all know what the timeline and checkpoints are, how we're going to get there and who is responsible for each stage/leg of the pre-event workup. Some people can take on a lot and some will take on a little, but everyone's participation contributes to the bigger picture.

Hope that's enough of the Island Spirit philosophy to keep you inspired!

You cannot post new topics in this forumYou cannot reply to topics in this forumYou cannot edit your posts in this forumYou cannot delete your posts in this forumYou cannot vote in polls in this forumYou cannot attach files in this forumYou cannot download files in this forum